


Near Miss

by ProtoNeoRomantic



Series: I Want Another First Kiss [23]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s02e01 When She Was Bad, F/M, Ficlet, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, Friendship, Love, Non-Graphic Violence, Present Tense, Romance, Seize the Moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 20:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3461072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A first kiss Willow and Xander probably would have shared in Season Two if she had just taken enough initiative to lean forward about a centimeter  half a second before it was too late.  (2 of 7)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Near Miss

“I'm a man,” he says. “I have certain needs, certain desires...” Willow's expression of straight-laced disgust more or less covers her sudden stab of resentment, she hopes. No need to put a fine point on the fact that she is a girl too, not just Buffy. He can't help he doesn't think of her that way. No one does. Why would they?

But then he does the thing with the ice cream cone and it's so confusing, so unexpected that it's like she has a time lag in figuring out what's going on. She has already pushed him away in genuine straight-laced disgust at the overall idea of nose licking by the time she realized that Xander has just segued almost directly from 'needs and desires' to 'hey, let me taste you' and she is missing her cue. Has missed it, she thinks, but then comes the slow, gentle caress of the handkerchief, and against all odds, they have invented erotic nose wiping. Erotic and romantic. If he kisses her now it will be perfect. If he doesn't, he probably never will. He leans in and her heart skips.

For a moment she is frozen, still and hardly breathing, like Snow White, like Sleeping Beauty as her lips await the pressure of his kiss to set her free. Hesitation, just as sudden as this sudden escalation. Just as sudden and confusing as he starts to draw away. Then her heart is filled with panic and with sudden desperate longing for the moment like a bubble that is threatening to burst. His pulling back is less than inches, she can count in millimeters. They've lost nothing near a second, in his eyes is no decision like a bird that stops it's singing but has yet to fly away.

In a sudden burst of action she moves very slightly forward with the terror of a hunter who is sure the game will bolt, that she will go home empty handed in the face of starving winter, survival in the balance as she takes her only shot. His lips are warm against her and her hands are on his shoulders as his fingers cease to brush her and his whole hand cups her face. Then the bold and gentle pressure falls to open mouthed exploring and relief and revelation are commingled into bliss.

Suddenly, Willow and Xander are slammed to the ground, hard. Willow looks up in time to see short legs in a shorter skirt step over them and well... maybe she sees a little more than that, but she averts her eyes and happily notes that Xander does the same. A moment's slaying later, Buffy turns and scolds them. “Does either of you even have a stake?” her voice is hard with a mother's anger. “Very sloppy.” They see her fear and love, and in secondes they are all hugging, letting Buffy know that she was missed, is needed, and is loved.

It's still early evening, the last one of the Summer. They decide to visit Giles. Willow and Xander walk arm-in-arm, the Slayer at their side.

 


End file.
